Microsoft Licensing Questions

1) License of most of Microsoft products do not require renew. The only exception will be MSDN (Microsoft Development Network) related products.

2) I think the performance of those machines degraded because of hard disk space, file fragmentation and, especially, unnecessary background programs. You might try run Disk defragmention and see if any help. On the other hand, new OS usually require higher hardware performance (e.g. CPU, hard disk, etc.) So upgrade OS will only make thing worse. However, reinstall the existing OS may help.

3) Yes (unless the PCs is under Select, Open or Enterprise licesne made with MS), new license required. You may purchase upgrade license which is much cheaper. If you are upgrade > 5 machines, you should contact sale for a better price.

4) You won't be able to detect the much different with core 2 duo because the main bottleneck is the slow hard disk.

5) OEM license (i.e. buy a branded PC from, say DELL) cannot be transferred. However, full license (bought separately from the PC) can be transferred.

6) Since Windows 2000 no long support by Microsoft, your only choice will be upgrade to Windows XP Home. The upgrade price for Win98 to Win XP Home is USD 99.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/pricing.mspx

1. no time limit for Windows XP and Win 2000 license
2. not necessary,
changing OS will not gain any benefit in the performance.
suggest to change the work stations
3. surely, changing the version of OS is need to buy a new one.
same as (2)
4. it will speed up the work